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| afro blue ----------------------------------- as bastard as you can get |
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the artist formerly known as avant-garde! - by roswell rudd
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back in the 1960's, avant-garde was one of the terms used to categorize the new music. because i was coming from dixieland jazz into this new music, the term struck me as strange and a little inappropriate. my understanding in those days was that the term was used particularly with those of us involved with free improvisation.
most recently my patience was piqued by a reference to my playing at the village vanguard with dave douglas and his band word, where i read "avant-garde trombonist roswell rudd". and so, it suddenly struck me that after plus or minus forty five years holding out as a creative performer that i am still today considered avant-garde in the minds of some writers.
i decided to look up avant-garde and was pleasantly surprised to find that it refers to innovative and progressive people in any field of endeavor. i can relate to that. so far, so good.
to have associations persisting for forty years or more is, in a way, gratifying and encouraging because i've always been devoted to our great classical american music, jazz, and continue to develop improvisations and compositions in the indigenous style.
but considering how i have performed in so many different musical situations and configurations since the 1960's, and steadily evolved through the '70's, '80s' and '90's to the present (listen to roswell rudd's malicool, universal/sunnyside), won a guggenheim fellowship for composition, received awards for performing and arranging, am considered a monk and nichols scholar, and have recorded their compositions extensively, why would the label avant-garde ------- which has become a commercial stigma for festivals and clubs, and it is the kiss of death to book anything called avant-garde ! ----------- why am i stuck with this one hundred and forty year old label at the age of 68?
born in nineteenth century france, the term designated artists who wanted to cut ties with whatever had been done before them. i, on the other hand, felt and feel very close to dixieland, which i consider my musical roots, and that i was and am just evolving out of the tradition, with no desire to rupture with past aesthetics, but only to build upon and extend them. so in terms certainly of 19th century france and common usage at that time, i would not have been considered avant-garde. however, 20th century common usage of the term to include innovative and progressive would include me. common perception, which is still more like the 19th century, makes this a distasteful term to most people, if not ambiguous.
i acknowledge that the writers who describe me in this way today may be using it as an accolade.
somehow avant-garde has come to mean offensive, abrasive, and have negative connotations: what most people don't want to hear. some hard-core adventurous listeners did and still do seek out the avant-garde. thankfully. but the more popular usage, which determines perception and overrides actual meaning could keep people away rather than bring them in.
so call me fun; call me dixieland; call me innovative; call me lyrical; call me for the gig; call me an improviser, because after all, i am a jazz musician. but don't call me late for dinner, and certainly not avant-garde!
p.s. - what is avant-jazz??
kerhonkson (ny), november 29, 2003.
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roswell rudd is a trombonist and composer. since the sixties, he has worked with major figures of what they call "the free jazz movement" (albert ayler, cecil taylor, archie shepp, among many others). roswell rudd is also an ethnomusicologist who collaborated with alan lomax. his latest album "malicool" was released in 2002 by universal jazz france. a documentary called "bamako is a miracle", produced by afro blue, was shot during this recording experience in mali. for more information about roswell rudd, check out www.soundscape.com.
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about "world peace" - by gilad atzmon
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now, when it is beyond doubt that the anglo-american (the english speaking world) "war against terror" is leading to self-defeat, there is one simple strategic alternative that would make this planet a much safer place. the first lesson one learns when attending an introductory course in international affairs is that the balance of power and the power of deterrence are the most crucial ingredients for peace. the cold war showed this. america and ussr never engaged in a direct conflict. they simply had too much to lose.
if "world peace" is our main concern, we must achieve a balance of power, we must let the oppressed people of this world have access to the most advanced weaponry. if the palestinians, for example, were equipped with the latest anti air missiles, anti tank missiles, cluster bombes and cruise missiles, there would be no need for foreign intervention in the israeli/palestinian conflict. the palestinian militant would not have to carry out any martyrdom operations in the centre of tel aviv. like the mujahideen who crashed the soviet army and the vietcong who defeated the americans, the palestinian would punish the israeli soldiers and concentrate solely on them. they would shoot down the jewish combat airplanes and would destroy the israeli tanks as soon as they entered the gaza strip. soon the jewish state would have to pursue every possible option to achieve peace with the palestinian people while addressing the "palestinian right of return".
balance of power is the only key to peace. islamic militants, when equipped with the right weaponry, would concentrate on anglo-american military targets. they would never kill civilians or attack what the americans call ‘soft targets’. the islamic struggle is about liberation not about bloodthirstiness. it isn’t about a culture clash or about war against our values. anyway, the only values we have are "market values", basically the price of oil. we can’t fool ourselves anymore. in the age of "guantanamo bay" and continuous killing of thousands of iraqi and afghani civilians, we cannot claim to have "values" to defend.
if islamic militants could practically endanger our existence we would have to listen to them with great respect. we would then have to look for a genuine means towards reconciliation. i suggest that we allow the iranians to be as nuclear as we are, we leave syria alone, we must help the palestinians become as armed as their israeli enemy. we should be living in a world that embraces the notion of "balance of power". i assume that the key to peace therefore is to dismantle the hegemony of america, britain and israel. there are different ways to achieve such an aim. supporting the strength of the european union is an obvious one, opposing america and israel is another. in all this, the impeachment of mr blair and bush is necessary. we can not anymore expect those evils to have enough dignity to resign.
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gilad atzmon is a saxophonist and writer born in israel. his first novel ("guide to the perplexed) has been internationally acclaimed. his lates cd, "exile", is published by enja. gilad atzmon lives in london. for more information about him, check out www.gilad.co.uk.
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